Shetland Fireside Tales

1. An Old Man's Tale

ON the eastern part of Trosswickness, near an ancient Pictish ruin, once stood a lonely hut. The man who lived there was called Olla Ollison, but that was not his real name. Olla lived the life of a hermit. He was about thirty years old and somewhat slender. He always looked pensive, and very often retired to the sea-shore after sunset.

One day in late autumn he had just finished his harvest and put his sheaves in little stooks behind his hut. His day's work was done, and he went home to eat something and to rest till the moon had risen. Then he wanted to go to the sea-shore.

The night was calm and beautiful. The seafowl had gone to rest here and there on the Ness. He was about midway down his steep pathway to the shore when he noticed an old man coming up towards him with a heavy bag of sillocks on his back. They knew each other slightly.

The old man was on his way home. At this meeting the old man asked Olla why he came to the beach so late at night.

"I come here to meditate, to feel at one with the rocks and the rippling waves and listen to their voice. I come here to ask the sea to give me back the treasure of my heart, kept away from me for many long years."

"Ah, well," said the old man, "I have trotted up and down to the beach here the last thirty years of my life, and I have never seen or heard anything peculiar myself. I for my part have a wife, and if she can only hold her tongue, home life is not too bad. Maybe a wife can make you happy."

Olla listened attentively and sighted deeply at the old man's words. "I sympathise with you in your troubles, and am thankful that you think well of me. But now I feel I must meditate. However, if you will come tomorrow to my hut, I shall be happy to talk more with you."

Next day the other came to visit the hermit. When he tapped gently at the door, a voice from within cried, "Come in, friend."

"Good day," said the oldtimer. "It is so good for someone like me to talk with a man of eddication, and express my opinions so freely, but I hoop you'll excuse me for it."

"Yes, of course. Do take a seat," said the hermit.

The old man sat down and soon told of auld Peggy Moad the midwife. One day she was summoned by the hill-folks to help them with a difficult birth. While she was in their home, she was given a salve to rub the child's eyes with. By accident some of the salve into her eye, and then on she could see hillfolks that otherwise remained invisible to people.

But some time after the hillfolks found out that she was able to see them and their doings among other people. One sunday she met the man of the hillwife she had helped.

"How is it with you today, Peggy?" he asked, and with that he breathed into her face. And from that day she never saw hillfolks any more.